Betrayed By Love
by dinosonzii
Summary: Love conquers all, they say. But they are all wrong. Will Aphrodite's daughter change the pattern of love in a hero's life? Or will Leo have to find out the hard way, that love is just life's greatest betrayal? This has very VERY subtle one-sided Leo/Piper. Please Read and Review! Thank you.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first story which will be longer than a one-shot. I have a very vague idea of how I'm going to continue the story, so if it strays from the summary, please bear with me! Thanks for reading!**

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Leo woke with a start when his head was banged against the Wii-mote on the control panel in front of him.  
"Sorry mate!" He heard Jason yell from outside. "We've hit a spot of turbulence but I'll have it smoothened over in no time!" Leo turned his head to see Jason battling to take control of the wind buffeting him and rocking the ship violently. He pressed a few buttons on the Nintendo DS attached to the left of the control panel to stabilize his ship.

Leo sighed and stood up from the seat he had fallen asleep in... again. This was the fourth time this week! It seemed that whether they were in the sea or amongst the clouds they were running into trouble, be it Gaia's monsters or her manipulated weather. Unfortunately, their bad luck had just increased in the past week.

Leo turned around to see Piper watching Jason anxiously from the cabin window. By her posture, Leo realized she hadn't gotten even a second of sleep last night, though you would never know it by her face. There were no dark circles below her ever-changing colorful eyes. Her face seemed to glow in the dim light, as if her face was the morning sun and the sky was merely reflecting it's light rather than the other way around. That was the effect of a daughter of Aphrodite, though Piper was always trying to hide it.

Leo made his way across the cabin, checking levers and pushing buttons along the way, to stand next to Piper.  
"Do you know, Leo, what it feels like to watch someone you care about battle to keep you safe?" Piper asked softly, not taking her eyes off her boyfriends golden hair blowing in the wind. She paused before continuing "It's terrible... But you know what's worse? That you can't do anything about it. That no matter what you can't help in that fight." There was a shocking bitterness in her tone. Leo understood that losing Percy and Annabeth had fallen hard on all of them. It happened but a week ago, and the wound was still fresh. Was Piper talking about that? But of course he knew how it felt... It was after all his fault they fell into Tartarus and Piper knew he blamed himself. Maybe there was something going on with Jason, he didn't know about. Or maybe, Piper is just tired.

Leo, unsure what to say to that, gently placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. He slipped his other hand into his pocket and started fiddling with the spare parts he always kept in there. "Pipes..." Leo started nervously. He wasn't good with people or feelings and had no idea what to say. It was obvious she couldn't help Jason. The roaring wind was too loud for anyone to hear her charmspeak anyway. Leo was saved from speaking when the ship suddenly lurched to one side, sending Leo and Piper flying against the wall and causing Jason to come crashing through the cabin window.

Leo was on his feet in an instant, rushing to the control board to check for damage anywhere aboard the Argo II.  
"What happened?!" Leo shouted over the roar of the fierce wind.  
"Storm spirits!" Jason yelled, already clambering out the window. "Tons of them- NO!" The last part was addressed to Piper, who was about to follow him out. "You have to stay here Pipes. It's too dangerous outside."  
"I CAN HELP!" Piper exclaimed indignantly.  
"You'll get blown overboard!" Jason yelled before running off towards the main deck.

Piper turned to me with a defeated look in her eyes.  
"I can't just sit here and do nothing!"  
"Pipes, you're strong but this is not something we can help him in."  
Piper put on a sour face just as the ship made a horrible squeaking sound and then rumbled dangerously.  
"Look beauty queen, I need to go check the engine room. Could you man the controls for a while?" Leo requested.  
"Why can't you send me down there?" asked Piper.  
"At stable conditions it's about 300 degrees Fahrenheit down there; Who knows how hot it will be now! Do you want to be burnt to a crisp?" Leo asked as he raised an eyebrow.  
They just stared at eachother for a few moments, a silent battle waging through their eyes. Finally logic won out, and Piper averted her eyes, admitting defeat.  
"Just tell me what to do." Piper replied sullenely.  
Leo grinned and showed Piper the basic buttons and levers to use if anything went wrong, then he turned to leave the cabin.

However the moment he set foot on the deck a furious gust of wind sent him flying overboard.

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**CLIFFHANGER! DA DA DAAAAA! Please review! Love you all! 3 3 3**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm soo sorry i haven't uploaded for so long, busy with school and stuff. Anyway, hope you enjoy this. It's a bit odd, but this is my first multichapter fic. Please leave any suggestions in a review (and be nice about it 3).**

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One second. Leo had stepped out of the control cabin for one second and the next thing he knew he was plummeting through the cold air. Surprisingly he wasn't terrified. Oh, the fear was there, but he was only vaguely aware that he was screaming his lungs out. Most of his brain however, was working in overdrive trying to figure out a plan to not get himself killed. Unfortunately, nothing was really coming to mind. Leo did however remember to spread out his arms and legs to slow his descent. He briefly considered setting himself on fire but immediately dismissed it as a memory came to him.  
"'...You're no more of a freak than we are' Jason said, 'And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, "Flame on!"'. Leo snorted. 'If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death and I would be yelling something a little stronger than "Flame on!"'..."  
'Well, this is ironic.' Leo thought. 'I'm probably going to die as the victim of my own sarcasm.'  
The land was below him was getting more detailed every second.  
"Well," Leo muttered, "If I'm going down I'm going down with a bang!"  
Leo could now see individual cars on the roads.  
He took a deep breath and set himself on fire while shouting "LOOK OUT LADIES! HERE COMES THE FLAMING HOT LEO VALD-".

THUMP! Leo landed hard on a semi-solid surface. He could say that it knocked the wind out of him but that's not quite true. In reality, it was the opposite way around. The storm of wind around him became so great that it literally blew out his flames and almost knocked him out. Like a demigod birthday candle.  
After a few moments, Leo realised he was being moved upwards back towards the ship. Leo scrambled upright on whatever it was he fell on. He was surprised to see he was sitting on a large black horse, except instead of legs the horse had vapour particles propelling it forward. Jason's evil espresso pet, Tempest, had saved him. Leo let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he had been holding in and let Tempest take him back up to the ship. He silently prayed that the storm spirit below him wouldn't vapourize below him and send him falling back down again.

He reached the deck of the Argo II safely and the storm spirit, paused for a few moments, waiting for Leo to climb off. Unfortunately Leo, who was watching Jason battle the storm spirits in a mini-tornado around him, didn't take the hint. Tempest, reared back before charging forward into the battle and bucking his hind legs, sending Leo crashing into the door to the engine room. Leo shook himself and quickly ran inside.

Leo ran down the flights of stairs, all the way down to the lowest deck of the ship, where the engine and Athena Parthenos were. Leo wished he could just shove the huge golden statue out of his ship, because everytime he saw it, he couldn't help but think of the cost at which they managed to retrive it. Who cares if it was a supposed bane to monsters, it wasn't like the attacks had stopped. And because of the stupid statue, he had lost two of the strongest demigods he knew, and two of the greatest friends.

Leo shouted the words that opened the doorway through the thick metal wall seperating the engine from the rest of the deck, as he ran through. He had the door set so that only his voice could open it with the passcode "Leo is da MAN!". A wave of heat hit his senses the moment he stepped into the room. An acidic, rusty smell filled his nostrils. 'This cannot be good', Leo thought as he ventured closer to the large metal engine. The engine was making popping noises. Right in the centre of all the engine apparatus, sat a bronze sphere, about the size of a basketball, its surface bristling with glass cylinders so it looked like a mechanical starburst. Golden connection wires ran out from it. The only problem? The sphere was glowing a bright neon green, and the display clock showed 93.45 and was ticking down. "Not again!" Leo let out a few choice Spanish swear words, before calming and focusing on the task at hand. The syncopator was threatening to explode. Again. The storm spirits must have changed the air density causing one of the vials of Styx water to break and flood the core. Leo wouldn't be able to repair it this time. He had to make a new syncopator. Luckily, he had kept an extra of all the parts in Buford's drawers. He put two fingers to his lips and whistled loudly, and a mechanic's table came trotting into the room and stopped beside him. Leo pulled a wrench out from his tool belt and opened up the core. "C'mon Buford, time to fix this mess".


End file.
